Medplum Case Study | HIPAA-Compliant Health Platform Development

About Project

TechMagic partnered with a digital health startup to build a next-generation HIPAA-compliant platform for early cancer detection and prevention. The mission? Make critical screenings more accessible, convenient, and affordable, removing barriers like physician referrals, insurance complexities, and out-of-pocket costs. Built on Medplum, with HealthGorilla powering clinical data retrieval, the platform delivers a secure, scalable experience for both patients and doctors. Patients can book appointments, access records, and consult physicians from one place. Doctors get the tools they need to review cases and order tests while superadmins oversee the full workflow. Designed for a web browser with a mobile-optimized version, the platform offers a clean, intuitive experience built for real-world care.

Project Challenges

Limited access to realistic test data

Testing the platform’s functionality with real patient complexity was difficult due to a reliance on anonymized or synthetic data during early development. While necessary for compliance, this approach made it hard to simulate real-life scenarios and patient journeys, especially those involving nuanced histories or complex case reviews. This limitation called for flexible test environments and iterative validations with subject matter experts.

Complex integration with HealthGorilla

HealthGorilla provided access to a wide array of external medical records via national networks. However, surfacing this data in a way that was both meaningful and digestible required a smart filtering strategy. We needed to ensure that only clinically relevant data was presented and that it was tailored for different users (patients vs. doctors) without overwhelming them. This challenge was as much about user experience design as it was about data architecture.

Evolving product design needs

Post-MVP, the client initiated a complete UX redesign to bring the product in line with their updated branding and visual identity. This required a rethinking of layouts, colors, typography, and accessibility. And all while maintaining usability and performance. Because healthcare users range from tech-savvy millennials to older adults and clinicians with busy workflows, the design needed to remain intuitive, responsive, and inclusive across all screens.

Project Objective

The objective was to build a secure, HIPAA-compliant, and easy-to-use digital health platform that would support both patients and physicians in the early detection process. For patients, the system needed to remove traditional access barriers and allow them to manage screenings independently without needing a referral or navigating complex insurance steps. It also had to make personal medical history readily available through a clean, unified interface. On the clinical side, the platform needed to provide doctors with tools to review cases and order relevant tests quickly. The backend had to be reliable and scalable, with future growth in mind. From day one, the goal was to reduce friction in preventive care and promote early detection by making it easier for people to take charge of their health. The product had to be efficient, transparent, and ready for real-world use.

Solution Delivered

TechMagic developed a full-featured application supported by a modular backend. We used Medplum as the foundation for medical data management, patient records, and scheduling workflows. This allowed us to work within FHIR standards while developing features that matched the startup’s unique approach to care delivery.

We built:

Secure user authentication and registration, including multi-factor authentication
Role-based dashboards for patients, doctors, and platform administrators
Self-service scheduling workflows, supported by Zoom Video SDK for virtual consults
Bi-directional HealthGorilla integration for external medical records
Physician tools for reviewing cases, ordering lab tests, and managing appointments
Automated email flows for appointment confirmations, reschedules, and follow-ups
A modular UI architecture built on Next.js, with flexible design components and performance in mind

Why Medplum Was Chosen: Strategic Takeaways for CTOs and CEOs

Building healthcare applications from scratch is hard — not only because of technical complexity, but because of clinical standards, regulatory compliance, and interoperable data requirements. For this preventive care product, here are criteria shaped the platform choice and insights for you:

Standards-First Healthcare Data

Medplum is built around the FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) standard, a foundation for modern healthcare data exchange. By adopting a FHIR-native platform, the team could work with structured clinical data models and connect to external data sources without custom schemas.

Regulatory Readiness and Security

Healthcare apps serving patient records and clinician workflows must meet stringent security and privacy requirements such as HIPAA compliance. Medplum provided core primitives — including secure data access patterns, audit logging, and role-based controls — that helped accelerate delivery of a compliant platform.

Development Speed and Focus

By using Medplum’s developer platform as the medical backend, the TechMagic team could reduce time spent building foundational infrastructure and instead concentrate engineering effort on product logic, workflows, and user experience. This was essential for the startup’s time-to-market goals. Benefits realized: - Minimized backend boilerplate for clinical data storage and access - Clear API surface for application logic implementation - Less overhead for maintaining core compliance primitives

Leverage standards-based foundations

Choosing a FHIR-native platform like Medplum can significantly reduce technical risk and accelerate development in regulated healthcare contexts.

Enable interoperability early

Working with structured healthcare standards simplifies connections with external systems and data sources down the line.

Embed compliance into the architecture

Building with a platform that natively supports secure data handling frees engineering teams to focus on what the product does rather than how basic controls are implemented.

Prioritize modularity

A modular backend and clear API separation make it easier to adapt to changing clinical requirements and to scale the platform over time.

Click to start watching the video

Services Provided for the Project

Medplum development

We used Medplum as the core of the platform’s medical infrastructure, implementing FHIR resources, patient timelines, encounter histories, and provider tools. Our developers built custom workflows and optimized Medplum’s backend capabilities to meet clinical and patient-specific use cases. We also ensured compliance with HIPAA and healthcare best practices throughout.

Get a quote

UI/UX Design

Our design team maintained a close collaboration with the client to translate clinical complexity into clean, user-friendly interfaces. We focused on accessibility, responsiveness, and visual consistency. The current redesign continues to build on this foundation, evolving the product based on real-world feedback.

Get a quote

HealthGorilla integration

Our engineers handled the full HealthGorilla integration, including authentication and API orchestration, as well as building logic for surfacing and filtering patient records. We ensured the data was not only technically accurate but also clinically meaningful and easy to interpret.

Get a quote

HIPAA compliance and security architecture

We built the entire platform to be HIPAA-compliant, with a strong focus on data encryption, secure authentication, and role-based access controls. This ensures that all health data remains protected and audit-ready.

Get a quote

Full-stack web & mobile development

Including backend services using NestJS and responsive frontend apps built with Next.js, our full-stack engineers delivered high-quality code, test coverage, and CI/CD pipelines. Mobile responsiveness and performance optimization were baked in from the start.

Get a quote

Tech Stack

Medplum

Primary backend for the medical data record, FHIR resources, and scheduling

HealthGorilla

Clinical data retrieval via national healthcare networks

Next.js

High-performance frontend framework for the patient portal

Strapi

Flexible CMS for site content management

NestJS

Backend logic and AI-driven components

Zoom Video SDK

Secure video consultations between physicians and patients

Project Results

Robust platform launched and live

The full platform is currently live and accessible via desktop and mobile. All core features are operational, including scheduling, medical record retrieval, and video consultations.

Full redesign based on real user input

A comprehensive UI/UX refresh is underway. Based on insights from initial users and stakeholders, the goal is to improve overall usability, align visuals with branding, and ensure accessibility across all user groups.

Physician usability testing

Testing with licensed physicians is planned for the upcoming month. This phase will validate whether the platform’s workflows support real-world clinical needs and will guide final adjustments before wider rollout.

Demonstrating real impact

Even in its early stage, the platform shows that a patient-first approach backed by thoughtful technology can lower access barriers and simplify preventive care. It provides a working model for how modern digital health tools can support early cancer detection without adding friction for patients or providers.

Why TechMagic

Proven Medplum expertise

At TechMagic, we don’t just integrate Medplum. We understand how to extend, customize, and align it with clinical workflows. Our team is experienced in configuring FHIR structures and building on top of Medplum’s robust developer platform to meet the real-world demands of digital healthcare.

001

/003